Accumulated nonsense from one arrow's journey through time and space

January 2008

01/29/2008

Yes, my purpose in life is to help people understand each other. We've been through that enough. But the thing that I would do if I never needed money, maybe once I retire-- just for fun, is teach ESL.

That opportunity may be coming sooner than expected. There's a Russian guy in the city that is very eager to get rid of his heavy accent. Well, not get rid of exactly, but to achieve clarity and make himself easier to understand without losing his booming Rrrrrussian style. He's been to speech coaches and wants to work with me after hearing my mother speak at a conference. She still has a distinct accent but she's very easy to understand and her grammar is fantastic.

Sooooo yeah... hi! My name is E and I'm an accent reduction specialist with 16 years of experience! Pay me money!

If this works and I actually make money from it then I will be the happiest person on the planet <3

01/24/2008

Going to the GHP today was a really smart thing to do. They did one minute intros, which means I not only got to tell everyone that I'm looking for a job but gave them a taste of the "fearless public speaker" role. A guy came up to me afterwards and said "Hi, I'm a recruiter for X oil company, and my bosses called me today and said they needed 10 communications specialists in Houston. Can I call you?" And then another came up with another company. And then another. And everyone either took a resume or commended me for my bravery/eloquence/good idea. It was pretty much fantastic.

There was a guy from a career web site sitting behind me so I got to pick his brain too-- how is the latest downturn of the economy affecting hiring practices in our region? Answer: it's NOT! Woo! And he went into all the details why and that he works with a petroleum company and told me who to call etc. etc. etc.

Overall it was a very good day.

The downside was that I couldn't freaking find a parking spot in town aaaaaand drove around for 20 minutes trying to navigate all the stupid one way streets. $30 for 4 hours? Oh hell no. I ended up getting a spot in one of the five dollar lots that was 17 blocks away, and walked both ways in three inch heels... in the rain. My legs hate me right now, but it'll be ok. The kicker: "Oh... you knew that the organization gets free parking in the garage, right? All you have to do is bring in your parking ticket and they stamp it for you." *groan*

01/23/2008

Every form of healing has its place. People have healed themselves and each other with various degrees of success since the beginning of time. Perhaps the thing that's really off-putting about modern medicine is its arrogance-- these pills are the ONLY things that will CURE you. Serious problems do need medical attention, but others can be healed through acupuncture, tapping, diet, massage, yoga, meditation etc. I'm currently doing a light combination of all of them and it's been getting me through issues I've had all my life. Yes, it may be a placebo effect or whatnot, but what matters is that this is working where other things are not.

01/18/2008

Unemployment is up, the market is down, and here I am, still jobless. Woo!

Everyone's starting to hurt financially, and it's pretty interesting to watch. What will people spend their money on now? What's congress going to try to do and what will the candidates promise to do? That's why there's a spike in young voter turn-out... we're broke, in debt, and jobless... or in jobs that don't offer benefits. It's been really fun not being able to go to a doctor lately even though I need to.

Hopefully, (if the punk doesn't stand me up again) I'll have tea with my darling tonight, which is always such a treat. He's not American and will take his sweet European time at the coffee shop. Most people go out for coffee and off to somewhere else within 20 minutes... he sits back, smokes a few, sips his coffee, and rants about politics ( "They're all bah-stards and each one will f*** things up even wuh-se")

Haha, I love him, even if he has owed me money for the past two years...

01/06/2008

Instead of Iowa I wound up in D with an old friend who needed a date for a wedding. He swore I was the absolute last resort since he knows that I hate weddings and he couldn't find anyone closer (200 miles) to go. So I went.

*sigh*

Turns out that said childhood friend has like me for quite some time now, which is really weird since we've known each other since we were 10 years old.

The wedding was on Saturday and we left on Friday and came back today. That's two days longer than it needed to be, and seeing as how it was just the two of us, this news made it slightly uncomfortable and very awkward. Advances from someone you've known for 13 years (and have never been interested in) are unnerving.

Sweet boy... he really is... but no.

The wedding itself was pretty funny in an "omg, I feel so sorry for the bride" type of way.

The pastor acted drunk. No telling if she was or not, but damn-- if you keep losing your place and completely forget that the new couple has just said their vows and make them do it a second time, and being completely inappropriate at times... fired. It was like she had never done a wedding before. "hold on... hold on y'all. Did we do this part already? *points to passage in bible while asking the bride* And she had one of those female sportscaster voices-- loud, booming, and obnoxious. *sigh*

It was in a hotel and the room was booked for 5-5:30. The wedding actually started at 5:30, but the hotel, thinking the ceremony was over, turned their music back on at full blast while pastor lady was fumbling through her introduction.

They dropped the cake. For real. Luckily only the top layer fell off, but the bride was really upset.

One thing that was awesome was how mixed the crowd was. Everyone was a minority there. The parents of the bride-- all four of them were from different backgrounds as were the grandparents. The bride was GORGEOUS (black and hispanic mix). It's so good to see all types of people as one big family :-)

01/02/2008

John: Here's $300 *shoves it in my coat pocket* go to Iowa for the caucus.

Me: uhhhh.... *blank stare*

I've been pro/conning the hell out of this possibility for the past hour or so. The pros are more numerous but the cons are more severe. I'm also not sure if my car can handle snow or if I should be traveling on my own.

01/01/2008

It's a brand new year full of new beginnings and ridiculously high hopes for self-improvement.

Have you made a new year's resolution? Have you broken it yet?

The most popular ones are to lose weight, make more money, and find a soul mate. It's so convenient that these are things that I need to do to some degree and there are hundreds of ads and articles everywhere that want to tell me how to go about making my life absolutely perfect. Because life will be absolutely sucky and miserable if I don't.

Screw that. My new year's resolution is to drink only tea at Starbucks. Why? Because it's cheaper, healthier, better-tasting, won't turn my teeth brown or make me super jittery, and it's a resolution that's easy to keep. Why start the year with failure? This is a nice measurable goal.

For the more abstract resolutions, how about spending more time on my well-being? Making better choices? Taking more chances? Not restricting dreams? Being a more giving/thoughtful/loving/optimistic/creative/better/whatever version of myself? How the hell do you measure something like that (and what's the point)?

Those things are all in my mind somewhere, but I'll stick with the tea resolution to get the year off on the right foot.